The supreme path is not to fabricate anything. The supreme meditation is not to be distracted.

Nothing can harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.

The nature of everything is empty and clear, and the mind is beyond both existence and nonexistence.

Emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is the space of possibility.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be miserable, expect something in return.

When you let go of trying to control everything, you can relax and enjoy life.

There are many ways to meditate. But at the heart of them all is mindfulness.

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

When we understand others, we understand ourselves. When we love others, we love ourselves.

Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.

The difference between buddhas and sentient beings is that buddhas recognize their nature while sentient beings fail to recognize it.

We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

It is never too late to turn on the light.

Whatever we do, we should see ourselves. Reading books doesn't show us our defilements. Watch yourself. Watch your mind.

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.

Liberation is not found by running away from our experience but by looking deeply into it.

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

The quality of every moment depends on the state of our minds.

Happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of experiences but an attitude toward life.

Every thought, every word, and every action leaves an imprint on our mind.

Suffering comes from our resistance to what is. Peace comes from our acceptance of what is.

The cultivation of loving-kindness is the thread that runs through all Buddhist teachings.

The teaching is simple: act with kindness and compassion. If you cannot do this, at least try not to harm others.

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay.

The way to overcome anger is to be too busy being kind to have time to be angry.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

To be attached to a thing means that mind and the thing meet and grow into each other.